


a song for two voices

by Laylah



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Genre: Character Death Fix, Demon Transformations, F/F, Off-Screen Poly, Song of Hope Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-10 06:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12293577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laylah/pseuds/Laylah
Summary: Despite the strangeness, Haru would know her anywhere.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lassarina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassarina/gifts).



In more ordinary times, Haru would absolutely be stopping to sightsee right now. Like, the penthouse at the top of the Hills? Holy crap. Nobodies like her basically never get invited places like that.

But there isn't usually a demon apocalypse underway, either, so sightseeing is going to have to wait. Kazuya and his friends are holding the demons off, and for Haru, it's time to give the performance of her life.

The first few notes are shaky as she finds the melody, even with the sequencer to back her up. The summoning song isn't like anything else she sung with D-Va—it's not even in Japanese, just this long string of nonsense syllables that put her hackles up from the first time she heard them. Finishing it, creating the banishing song, has meant figuring out how to restructure those lines she can't understand so that they fit with the incomplete melody Aya left her. It's the hardest song she's ever written. But it's the most important one.

By the third or fourth line her voice is steady and her volume is rising. She can see Yuzu fighting something swollen and horrible out of the corner of her eye, but she keeps her focus on the gate. This is the part that only she can do.

And then, as she starts into the second repetition of the words, another voice joins Haru's. It's a low, smoky alto, almost familiar but not quite, and Gin's hand tightens on her shoulder as he hears it too. Haru stands up from the keyboard, still singing. There shouldn't be anyone who already knows this song. She had to piece it together herself. It didn't exist until this morning.

A figure steps through Babel Gate. She's barefoot, wearing torn black jeans and nothing else, a giant snake draped over her shoulders to obscure her torso. Her skin is chalk white. Her black hair stands up in rowdy spikes. Her eyes are bright demon gold.

Despite the strangeness, Haru would know her anywhere.

Haru's voice falters and she reaches out.

Aya shakes her head, still singing. Haru can read that cue, just as if they were still on a stage together, just as if this were an ordinary show instead of the most important one in the world. She nods, and focuses again on making the words come out clear and strong.

Aya crosses the room slowly, her voice forming a harmony with Haru's, her hips swaying in time. Haru blinks hard against the tears threatening to form. Her throat wants to close up but she keeps singing. This is too important.

But it's working. The demons are vaporizing, one by one, sucked back into the darkness beyond Babel Gate. Aya reaches them just as the last one vanishes from Kazuya's side. She smiles, and her teeth are pointed but that doesn't matter when she's _here_ , and she's real and alive and—

And collapsing as she reaches Gin and Haru, her voice faltering as her face twists with pain. They're both kneeling with her immediately, holding onto her as she shudders. "I can't—it's trying to pull me back," she says, and her voice sounds right. She sounds real, whatever she looks like. Her nails bite into Haru's arm. "Don't let go."

"We won't," Gin promises. "I swear we won't."

On the far side of the room the Babel Gate grinds and shifts, issuing its demand, requiring that they prove themselves without the aid of demons. Aya is shivering, panting for breath, like it hurts her just to be here. Kazuya glances back and motions for Haru and Gin to get clear and leave things to them, and it doesn't feel great to leave the final battle to a bunch of kids but they do it.

Gin and Haru support Aya between them, halfway carrying her to the elevator as she stumbles between them. The snake draped over her shoulders winds around her protectively but it doesn't try to bite either of them.

They get her down to the lobby and that's about as far as they can make it with her like this, so they help her onto a couch and just sit with her there, holding on, trying not to get the snake's attention. Haru says, "I've missed you so much," and Gin says, "It's going to be okay," and Aya tries to smile through the pain as they wait for the battle above to end.

After long, awful minutes, Aya finally sags in relief and the agonized tension disappears. "It's done," she says. "The gate's closed."

"They did it," Gin says, soft and wondering, and then louder, "They did it!" like he's just now letting himself believe it was possible.

"We can all go home," Haru says. She's crying. The lockdown can end now, and Aya's here, and maybe she's changed but that doesn't matter, that's _fine_ , if it means she's not alone anymore.

* * *

For the next few weeks Haru doesn't see much of Aya, as everyone who was stuck inside the lockdown perimeter tries to get back to their lives, and government agencies come in to try to clean up all the damage. It's okay. Aya's alive, and back, and eventually they'll be able to get back to normal together. Right now she's probably spending a lot of time with Gin, and besides, she's texting Haru a lot, so it's not like Haru's lonely.

Still, when Aya eventually asks if Haru's free to hang out, Haru's reply is a probably embarrassing _sure yeah anytime just lmk when_.

 _be there soon_ , Aya answers.

And she is, only fifteen minutes later, letting herself into Haru's building with her spare key—why does Haru's heart skip a beat that Aya still has the key?—and ducking into her apartment with a wry smile. It's early September and it's still getting up almost to 30 in the afternoons but Aya's wearing a hoodie all the same, weirdly bulky around her middle.

"Are you okay?" Haru asks, not sure if she should reach out, not sure what to do with her hands if she doesn't.

Aya pushes the hood back to reveal her too-white skin and bright gold eyes. "Just trying not to spook anyone," she says as she tugs the hoodie zipper down.

She's not wearing anything under it. Except the snake.

"You still have that guy, huh?" Haru wouldn't say she's afraid of snakes especially, but this is a pretty big one, and it looks up at her with eyes the same color as Aya's, as if it understands what she's saying.

"He's part of the package," Aya says, giving the snake a little familiar nudge under the chin. "He goes where I go now."

It doesn't matter. Aya's here. "I don't think I have any snacks he'd go for," Haru says, "but I could get you a drink or something if you want."

Aya's smile is like the sun rising just for her. "That'd be great, thanks."

Haru flees for the kitchen to get them both some cans of tea out of the fridge. Her cheeks are burning. She hasn't been this nervous around Aya in probably two years, not since those first awkward days when she was sure she wasn't cool enough for Aya's company.

 _Come on, Haru_ , she tells herself, pressing one of the cold cans against her cheek to cool off. _You're a rock star. You got this._

When she heads back out to the living room, Aya has shed the hoodie completely and curled up on the sofa with her feet tucked under her. She looks comfortable. Weird, but comfortable.

"It's good to see you," Haru says, handing Aya the can she hasn't been using as an icepack. 

"You too, babe," Aya says. Their fingers brush as she takes the can and Haru is blushing again. This is ridiculous. She got over her crush on Aya ages ago, when it was clear that Aya was with somebody and happy with him, and it's not like that's changed. It's just...

Aya throws her a lifeline yet again. "So hey, tell me what you've been up to since I left?"

That's easy enough. Okay, she leaves out some things, especially about how bad she felt during the lockdown and how close she came to doing something really stupid that would have made this reunion impossible. She talks about learning to write music on her own, and about how nice Gin was to her when they were both so lonely, and about meeting Kazuya and Yuzu and the rest of the kids during the lockdown. The nervousness fades and she remembers how comfortable it is to be around Aya, how much Aya has always tried to put her at ease. It's so good to have her back, yellow eyes and weird scaly patches and all. 

"How about you?" Haru asks, when she thinks she's covered just about everything worth mentioning. "I've been so curious about what happened, where you were...."

"It's hard to talk about," Aya says, looking down at her hands. Her nails are black and Haru doesn't know if that's from polish or not. "I mean, not like in a trauma way, just... it's really hard to actually put into words. They call it the Expanse, the place where I was. And in some ways it's a lot like here, but in some ways it's...." She trails off, shaking her head. "If I'd stayed human I wouldn't have survived there."

"You're still human," Haru says. That has to be true.

"Partly," Aya allows. The snake is sliding off her shoulders, slithering its way across the back of the sofa toward Haru. Its tongue flicks out and touches her bare shoulder, ticklishly light, and she holds still so she won't startle it.

"I knew if I could hold out there, eventually the gate would be opened in a big way," Aya goes on. "And you would figure out how the rest of the song needed to go, and I could make it back here to you." She smiles gently. "You kept me going over there."

"Aya—" Haru is reaching for her without even meaning to, and Aya takes her hand, fingers chilly even with the heat of the day.

"You kept me going and then you brought me home," Aya says. She rocks up on her knees, leaning forward, and the snake slides around Haru's shoulders like it's trying to pull them closer together too, just as Aya gets close enough to press her lips to Haru's. Her skin is cool and she smells like dry dust and dark musk and Haru's heart is pounding and she wanted this so much—

But she makes herself pull back anyway, the snake a solid weight across the backs of her shoulders. She's learned a lot about considering consequences during the lockdown. "Gin?" she says.

Aya's eyes shine, bright yellow and strange. "He knows," she says. "It's okay."

"Okay," Haru says. She almost can't believe this is real, except that in her daydreams it's never this clear, the details never this sharp and the reality of what they've been through never this clear. "Okay." She leans back in and Aya climbs into her lap, kissing her slow and hard. The snake coils around them both, holding them close together as Haru wraps her arms around Aya's waist to pull her closer.

Haru's crying a little as they kiss, and that feels silly when she didn't cry while Aya was gone, but she can't help it. It's been so long, and she never thought she'd reach this point, but finally—finally—she has her happy ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want an uncomplicated happy ending, stop here. For something a little messier and more megaten, proceed to the coda.


	2. Coda

Aya shows her a new way to sing that afternoon, the two of them stretched out on the sofa together, Aya's jeans and Haru's dress both puddled on the floor. Haru's heart is still pounding when they curl up together afterward, Aya's head pillowed on her shoulder, the snake draped across both of their waists. Aya's skin still feels chilly against her but Haru doesn't mind, not with the heat of the day still baking the apartment.

"It's so good to see you," Aya murmurs. She kisses Haru's collarbone. "I've been so lonely."

"When you were... over there, you mean," Haru says. Her heart hurts thinking of Aya being so isolated, waiting—

"Even after I got back," Aya says. "I mean, Gin does his best, and I'm grateful, but he has a job to do, so he can't be around all the time."

Haru holds her tighter. "You—you had so many friends, though! You're... everyone loves you."

"Before the lockdown, yeah," Aya agrees. "Now, well." She stretches out her arm, calling attention to the spots where powder-white skin turns to glossy gray scales. "I don't get out much."

"Oh. Oh, Aya. I'm so sorry." Haru has always been sort of a loner herself, but Aya loved being around people. "And you can't..."

"We don't know who to trust," Aya says sadly. "Apart from you, obviously. If the official story is that the lockdown was all about gas-induced hallucinations and rumors getting out of control, and then I show up looking like this..." She shrugs. "I don't think it would go well, you know?"

"No." Haru buries her face in Aya's hair, breathing in the strange sandy smell she has now. "I'm so sorry. I wanted everyone to be happy. To be safe. Everyone, but especially you."

Aya and the snake both squeeze Haru tight. "I know. You did what you could with what you had. I left you with so little to go on." She nips at Haru's skin, playful but still sharp enough to make Haru jump. "But you know... this doesn't have to be the ending to the story."

"Yeah? What's that supposed to mean?"

Aya hums a few notes, just enough that Haru can recognize the tune. The summoning song.

She swallows hard. "It was terrible, when the demons were here."

Aya props herself up on her elbow, looking down at Haru with bright shining eyes. "It doesn't have to be." She's so beautiful, even with the demon influence. She's courage and freedom and Haru can't look away from her. "We've learned a lot already right? And we could do more. Do better. Write a version of the song that would let this world and the Expanse interact on a level playing field. Make us allies instead of adversaries."

"You want that?" Haru asks.

"I want to not be an outcast," Aya says softly. "I want to not be the one thing that doesn't belong." She takes Haru's hand. "Joining our worlds would make that possible."

"And... you're telling me because you want me to help."

Aya nods. "My voice alone won't be enough. But if you're with me, I know we can do anything."

There's a lump in Haru's throat. This is a huge decision and she shouldn't make it lightly. She should wait, sleep on it, talk it over with someone more sensible.

"Where do we start?" she asks, and Aya's smile is everything she ever wanted.


End file.
